PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of a man accused of strangling his wife, stuffing her body in a duffel bag and dumping it off a remote Oregon forest road.
KOIN-TV reports that in closing arguments Monday, a prosecutor accused Brian Cole of killing his wife, Heather Mallory, after she decided to leave him for the man she began having an affair with months earlier.
Prosecutor Jenna Plank told the Multnomah County jury that neighbors heard a fight after Mallory told Cole she was leaving him, and the neighbors were later asked to babysit the couple’s 3-year-old son while Cole was gone for hours.
But Cole’s defense attorney told the jury there is no physical evidence linking Cole to his wife’s 2008 disappearance, only circumstantial evidence.
